PROBLEM OF PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 113, 16 May 1927, Page 15

PROBLEM OF PEACE.

BRITISH POLICY CRITICISED.

)UR ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHINA.

British policy in China was criticised last evening at a meeting held in Auckland under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the No More War movement. The Hon. George Fowlds presided. The Bfiv.W. Mawson,' for, over 20 years ft missionary in China, said for the last 80 years British policy in China had not been on a just basis. The Chinese were asking us to have patience, and still again patience. The great Eastern Empire had serious problems to solve, not the least being that of stable Government, and time was ■ needed for their solution. For nearly 300 years, up to 1011, China had been under the despotic rule of the Manchus, whose policy had been to Stress public control of public affairs. The Manehu rulers had «i in ply remove! the head of any man or woman whom they thought to be taking too much interest in public affaire. Tyranny such as this had naturally caused the mass, of the people to leave affaire of state alone, and there was still great apathy amongst the people. What was needed, more even than the abolition of unjust treaties, was a spirit of justice between Great Britain and the Chinese. If we treated them an felloe human beings, with equal rights tuu privileges, we should have gone far towards the solution of China's problems. Mr. J. A. Brailsford, a British journalist in China, said the cabled news from the East was one-sided propaganda, tending towards sensationalism, and, ot the whole, utterly misleading. The tra ditions of China were in the main oi the side of peace. He did not deny that suffering had in some cases been inflicted on our own people, but the Chinese jvere not a warlike nation. The solidiers were drawn from the lowest grade ©f society, and as a consequence, soldiering was considered a very degraded pio fession. The great Chinese philosophers. thinkers and writers were without exception on the side of peace, and that •pirit had persisted throughout the age*. It was just as strong to-day as it had ever been, and was a hopeful factor m the present state of affairs. A resolution was passed approving a manifesto against conscription and urging a return to the original spirit ot the League of Nations. It was stated that the manifesto had been supported in most of the civilised countries' of tue TVOlld.